THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8122, 20 April 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1906.

For a good many years a change has been taking plaoe in the nature of the British government of India, a ohange of wbioh Indians and Anglo-Indians are aware, which they do not find it easy to make known to the men in supreme authority, which is hardly ever heard of in Parliament, and which yet oarriea with it a decrease of efficiency, and may, if it continues, beoome a danger to the stability of the British Empire in India. When India be«

came oovered with a network of railways, telegraphs, ind postal servicesit became natural foe the large provincial Governments, suoh as that of Bombay, or of the Punjab, or of the North-west Provinces, to perfeot their headquarters' organisation with a view to the better supervision of the worK done in the various districts under their control. The Governor or LieutenantGovernor sought to perfect his office so that it might werk smoothly, quickly, and effectively. He appointed a number of olever secretaries, and grouped all the work done in his province departmentally,, so that one secretary could help him to> keep his hand on land tenure, another on forestry, a third on works, a fourth on law, and so on. These secretaries being valuable men, and their work being continuous, it was desirable to keep them at the headquarters. The local officials were, therefore, expected to report to them, or, what is the same thing, such reports as were made to the Provincial. Government passed through their hands. On an important matter the Governor or LieutenantGovernor reserved the decision for himself. He might have to account for it to the Viceroy and therefore it was desirable that he should have all the papers relating to it classified and recorded, together with his own minutes passing upon them. At first sight this arrangement seems admirable and necessary. But it changed the whole nature of Indian administration. Five hundred miles from the provincial capital, where the Lieutenant-Governor Uvea with his secretariat, is a large as an English county administered by a Commissioner with assistants. Before the railway and telegraph the Commissioner governed the district. He had to decide matters, because the circumlocution of referring to *a ohief 500 miles away was impracticable. Accordingly, bis word was law, He lived among the people,, he wa? in touob with them, and being really in authority was a man of oharaoter. The new system gave him a mass of reports to write. Thue the tendency was to transfer him from the work of dealing with men and settling affairs to the work of a scribe. His oharaoter suffered for he beoame narrowed. What was worse his opp/ortunities of knowing the natives and their thoughts were diminished for a good part of bis time and energy had to be given to writing papers. This was the first stage of the change of Indian administration from its earlier quality of oontaot with the life of the people to its later quality of desk work. The second stage oame when the secretariat bad become established and had to be renewed. The secretaries most useful were young men with quick pens. The cleverest young civilians tut a few years from Home were ohoseu and found so useful that they were encouraged to make the seotariat their career. These men lived among the natives in the villages, their life was spent at a desk and their leisure in the relaxation of the European society of the Residency. When that change had happened paper beoame supreme in the actual administration and vital experience among the uatives fell to a discount.

An attempt is being made to stock the Thames River with huohen (salmo hucho), a salmon that does not seek the sea and for that reason alight be found very suitable for New Zealand rivers. The huohen is found in Europe only in the Danube and its numerous tributaries suoh as the Lech, Inn, Uler and laar made famous by Campbell in his poem on the battle of JBohenlinden. A rookstrewn torrent rolling raDidly is what the huohen loves. The general shape of the fish is long and nearly round. The head and back are graygreen or brownish, the belly is silverwhite whilst on the sides both tints melt into one another, although at times, especially at the spawning season, the sides show brilliant changing coppery-red tints. Aa regards the huonen's character Dr Heintz, of Munich, says he is, with the exception of the wels, the most rapacious of all fresb water fish. He grows very quickly, and attains an enormous weight. Pish from thirty ts forty pounds are not uncommon; the biggest huohen killed of late years was one of 1041b caugnt at Tullu, near Vienna. Dr Heintz considers it a game fish of the iirst rank. In the Danube and its fine tributaries the huohen is found iu rough, rocky, rushing parts of the stream; infant, in just suoh nlaoes as the salmon-angler fishes on the Tay or Dee for spring salmon. In the Thames it will doubtless haunt the weir-pools, and hunt with the big trout, if the trout and the pike give him a chance to get big enough to do so.